In Medias Res
Going digital
by: Leia Margate
The call for newspapers has been in the air since the early 2000s. The push to go digital came as almost everyone has started using the Internet and smartphones. The urgent need to go digital came at the height of the pandemic with the lockdowns preventing the transport of materials for printing and the loss of street sales essentially stopping print for many publications.
Yet what does going digital actually mean? My research partner Jethro Bryan Andrada, a brilliant young instructor of journalism at the University of the Philippines Baguio, and I are doing research to document the answer at least for Baguio-based community journalism.
Our initial insights point to the use and adaptation of different social media, networking, and video sharing platforms. Video is useful for capturing attention, likes, and views. Social media is meant for attention and redirection to news websites. But these are obvious answers even to one just observing how news and information is being consumed online.
What we found insightful was the increasing production and necessity of podcasts. Not just audio recordings of talks like how initial podcasts were designed but full video whether on field or in the studio. It can be as simple as using the phone to record the talks or collaborating with studio productions. The podcasts provide audio and video material for multimedia platforms and call also be an essential source of original stories for the publication.
Recently, the Philippine Press Institute recognized digital only publications as full members along with publications that still produce the print version. The Cordillera News Agency is one such publication. Along with the support of PPI Commons, we are now bringing this four-decade old news agency into the digital space—we are going digital. As to how we are doing that, which platforms we can use, which media products can we produce, will all be a bit of a trial and error. Sounds like fun if you ask me.
